Colombo - At least 11 civilians were killed in a bomb blast Friday that rocked a town in eastern Sri Lanka ahead of Saturday's crucial provincial election, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. The bomb went off inside a hotel in Ampara town, 320 kilometres east of the capital. At least 30 persons were injured. The defence ministry said rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been responsible.
"This is another cowardly attempt of the LTTE terrorists to disrupt the normalcy in the area as the government scheduled to head the provincial council election tomorrow (Saturday) to establish the democracy in the eastern province", a ministry statement said.
Education Minister Susil Premjayantha said that the motive of setting off the bomb in the area would have been aimed at scaring the voters who were preparing to vote on Saturday.
Elections for the eastern provincial council are being held after 20 years following the recapture of the rebel held areas in the province.
The blast happened in a district mostly inhabited by members of the majority Sinhala community, and was likely to have bearing on the voting in the area, a local election monitor said.
Officials had been moving to take up duties in polling booths and the police were deploying to provide security, he added.
Over 30,000 policemen were to be on election duty in the province which consists of three districts - Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa.
The incident was the most violent incident in the campaign. Earlier only two deaths were reported in the area.
Government troops recaptured the eastern province in military operations spanning over one year enabling the government to fully restore civil administration and call for elections.
Similar military operations are in progress in the northern province to recapture rebel held areas, but rebels hold more fortified positions in the north compared to the east.
In the north west of the country the military recaptured town previously held by the rebels as at least eight soldiers and 33 rebels were killed.
The military confirmed the deaths of three soldiers and said five were missing in the fighting reported in Mannar, 320 kilometres north of the capital, but rebels said they had five bodies of soldiers killed in the confrontation.
The military said at least 33 rebels were killed in the clashes.
Fighting in the north and east have claimed the lives of at least 3,500 rebels and 400 soldiers since January, according to the military.
